Between the Moments
by tonraq
Summary: Orihime's been captured; Tsubaki is cranky, and something has to be done. A small introspective fic about what might have gone on between Orihime and her fairies immediately after her abduction.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

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When she let the fairies out the first time, Tsubaki screamed at her, torrents of swearwords and foul curses directed at his mistress, at her naievete, at the predicament they were in, at anyone and everyone in general, until his voice was hoarse and Shun'ou and Baigon could safely let go of his arms.

Orihime smiled wanly at the tiny masked fairy sulking on the back of the couch, and smoothed out a wrinkle in the stiff, starched white material of the odd robes she was wearing now. She was fond of Tsubaki-kun, perhaps more so than the rest of her Shun-Shun Rikka...not that she'd ever tell them that. But Tsubaki was mean and crude and spoke his mind; he didn't care what he said or who heard it, and he expressed anger so freely that it filled Orihime with a sort of vicarious relief. She was none of those things, and yet Tsubaki was a part of her.

She could let him rant. It saved her the trouble, the throat-ache, the guilt afterwards.

The rest of her fairies arrayed themselves around their cranky counterpart, disconsolate. Orihime drew her legs up, resting her chin on her knees, and tried to think. It had been several hours since the man with the bone helmet and the sad eyes had left her here: she had shouted and cried and explored every inch of the walls for the requisite secret tunnel, then cried again when she hadn't found it. She had found a small bathroom, however, but other than the couch and the high, barred window, the white-walled room was devoid of anything else with which to preoccupy her.

So she'd let her Shun-Shun Rikka out.

"So now what, Little Miss Self-Sacrifice?" Tsubaki demanded, after several minutes of very pointed silence. "What do we do now?"

"Give her a break, Tsubaki," Shun'ou said, "It's not like she had much of a choice. It's not her fault that they made her choose between her friends' deaths and her freedom."

"Our freedom, too." Tsubaki said, but it was half-hearted.

"I'm sorry," Orihime said softly, because she was.

"That's not very helpful," Tsubaki snorted, but his eyes were softer.

"You're not being helpful, either," Baigon shifted a little where he sat. "Maybe you could start trying to think of a plan to get out of here, Tsubaki-kun."

"Baigon, no!" Orihime said vehemently; her fairies looked at her, puzzled. "What I mean is," she said, quieter but still passionate, "I can't get out of here. If they find me missing, Aizen-sa... Aizen will command his troops to kill Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san and everybody. I can't let that happen."

"So you mean we're stuck here?" Tsubaki's eyes were wide with disbelief above his mask. "Why did they even bother locking you up, if you're just gonna sit around and do nothing anyways?"

Hinagiku cleared his throat as Orihime's eyes brimmed with tears. "She can't do anything, Tsubaki; she'll kill her friends, otherwise. She's stuck. And so are we."

"What should we do, Orihime-sama?" Lily alighted on Orihime's knee and touched the girl's face softly, her voice quiet and timid as always.

Orihime looked at her fairies: they watched her expectantly. She drew a deep, steadying breath. "We can't escape; I need to stay here for the deal to work. We can only wait, and hope that Soul Society and Kurosaki-kun get strong enough to defeat the arrancar soon."

"Not good enough," Tsubaki stood up and walked forwards, planting his hands on his hips. "We have to get stronger. None of this would have happened if we'd've been strong enough to kill that arrancar in the passage between earth and Soul Society."

"Perhaps Tsubaki has a point," Ayame mused. "It's not your fault, Orihime-sama," she assured the girl hastily, "but it's true that we still haven't become as strong as the others; Tsubaki in particular."

"I don't want to hurt anybody," Orihime began, but Tsubaki buzzed his wings angrily, cutting her off.

"That doesn't stop people from wanting to hurt you, woman! Sometimes, the only way to help your friends is to take the offensive, and that's where I come in! You're too soft-hearted, and now look where it's gotten us all; you'd better promise to train with me, or -"

"That's enough, Tsubaki," Shun'ou said firmly. "But I do think it is a good idea to continue training, Orihime-sama."

"Yes," Ayame chimed in. "We'll at least keep you company!"

Orihime smiled and opened her mouth, but there was a noise at the door: in a flash, her hairpins were in place and the fairies were nowhere to be found. Orihime stood up, smoothing out her clothes, and looked up just in time to see Ulquiorra coming in to the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

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In the long hours between what had become routine visits by Ulquiorra, Orihime practiced with her fairies. Or, rather, she tried to practice with her fairies: given the lack of opponents, there wasn't very much she could do. Tsubaki had already sliced the couch to miniscule pieces twenty-one times; twenty-one times had Ayame and Shun'ou restored it to perfection. Orihime sighed from where she was sitting on the rejection shield that Hinagiku, Baigon and Lily were currently holding seven feet in the air: she had been up there for an hour already, testing endurance. The last time it had been over two hours before there had been the slightest waver in her strength, and Orihime considered jumping up and down on the shield to hurry up the process, but she couldn't stand without brushing her head against the ceiling; hopping was out of the question.

"What's the problem, woman?" Tsubaki hovered in front of her face, seeming to take her sigh as a personal insult. "The Espada isn't supposed to come back for three hours, at least."

"I'm not worried about that, Tsubaki-kun," she told him, and held out her finger for him to perch on. "I'm just bored, I suppose. I haven't even been let out of this room since Aizen showed me the Hougyoku."

"Woman, you know we could break out of here easily. I can slice the bars on the window, the rejection shield can carry you outside, and Ayame and Shun'ou can fix it so they'll have no idea how you did it."

"But then they'll go and kill Kurosaki-kun," Orihime reminded him. "It's not like I like being here; I know that I could get out. But I want my friends to live, and so I will stay. Let's not argue about this again, Tsubaki-kun, please?"

"Keh," Tsubaki crossed his arms and looked off to the side, but Orihime knew he couldn't disagree with her.

Self-imposed imprisonment. Orihime had always been a free spirit; she wasn't tough and gutsy like Tatsuki, so people assumed she was content with things being the way they were, but Orihime never denied herself anything. Her cooking was a testament to the fact that she was unafraid to try new things, to go boldly where no Japanese teenager has gone before, to bravely experiment with what would drive most away, screaming in fear. But no! Orihime was strong, and tough, and utterly, utterly trapped at this moment.

Because as adventurous and easy-going as Orihime was, she was even more loyal and caring. And at this moment in time, Orihime was essentially trapped by her own goodheartedness.

Which is why she was planning. She spent quite a lot of time destroying things with Tsubaki, and carefully, carefully, putting them back together until they were perfect.

A noise at the door jolted her out of her reverie; panicked, she looked down at the familiar figure of the green-eyed espada coming through the door...he wasn't supposed to be here for hours! What should she do? She knew Aizen didn't want her using her fairies; would Ulquiorra report her? Should she put them away? Should she fight?

"Come down." The espada stood, hands in pockets, looking up at her with the same, emotionless face that he always wore.

"Why?" She asked, stalling and not knowing why.

"Aizen-sama wishes to speak to you. Put away the Shun Shun Rikka and come down here. Now."

Orihime felt stricken. How did he know the name of her powers? Perhaps Aizen knew, and had told him; all the same, she felt her privacy had been somehow violated.

"I...I don't want to," she said, voice trembling. "Tell Aizen...sama that I am not feeling well. I do not want to see him."

Ulquiorra's gaze remained fixed on her. "Aizen-sama wishes to speak to you, woman. You would do well to comply with his wishes, for your own sake."

The espada's tone had not changed; his expression had not flickered. Orihime still felt the threat like a slap across the face, and whispered softly to her fairies. Slowly, they lowered her to the floor, and she stood up as her hairpins rematerialized.

"You have not been eating," Ulquiorra observed, as Orihime found herself breathing just a little more heavily with the effort of standing up straight.

Without waiting for her reply, the Espada turned abruptly and exited the room; after a moment of hesitation, Orihime followed.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

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Aizen had merely wanted tea. Orihime had wanted to scream the entire time she had sat meekly across from the traitorous captain, quietly refusing an offer of steamed buns and not touching her tea. So what if she wasn't eating? It was the one act of defiance allowed to her, and she wasn't going to sit and pig out while her friends were fighting and probably dying out in the real world.

Ulquiorra walked her back to her room, but not before running into Grimmjow on the way. Orihime wasn't sure how to feel around him. She knew he had it out for Kurosaki-kun, and yet he also owed her for returning his arm with her powers; not that she expected the Espada to have any sense of indebtedness or human decency at all. When he loomed up out of a corridor, Orihime shrank back slightly.

"Oh look, it's Ulquiorra and the princess, out for a walk." His tone was mocking, jovial, and Orihime relaxed a little. She was only used to him being angry...perhaps Espada weren't all stuck on one emotion, like she had previously assumed. Too bad. She'd been looking forward to meeting the one stuck on happiness.

"Grimmjow." Orihime wasn't sure what emotion Ulquiorra was stuck on. He seemed to just not have any at all, which she supposed was a valid emotional state, but she couldn't think of a good word for it. "It would be in your best interests to leave the woman alone."

"And you, too, you mean!" Grimmjow slammed his arm into the wall beside Ulquiorra's head, leaning there almost casually, a grin stretched across his features. "You're no fun, Ulquiorra. I'll bet the woman's bored out of her mind with you as her keeper."

"He's not my keeper," Orihime said softly, then wished she hadn't.

"Oh-ho?" Grimmjow flicked his eyes to Orihime, and she wished he wouldn't undress her with them. Her cheeks burned. "So then what is he, hmm? Your jailer?"

"He's not my anything." Her cheeks burned, and she wished she could let Tsubaki out to argue with Grimmjow for her.

"That will be enough, Grimmjow," Ulquiorra said, and began to walk down the hall once more. "Come, woman."

Orihime trotted obediently after Ulquiorra, Grimmjow's sniggers ringing through the hallway. Once they were in her room, Ulquiorra turned to go, but Orihime tapped him politely on the shoulder. Ulquiorra turned again, waiting.

"Um, my name. I have one," Orihime stuttered out, feeling embarrassed, but insisting on getting her point across. "It's Orihime. Not 'woman'. I don't call you 'Espada'."

His eyes were flat. "Perhaps you should."

The moment the door slammed, the Shun Shun Rikka were out around her, and Orihime demolished the bathroom seventeen times and rebuilt it eighteen more times. She needed to think.


End file.
